- In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented
by two separate, yet equally important groups:
the police, who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
[bright music]
- First off, congratulations on winning the election.
- Thank you. I'm thrilled.
It's a great honor to be Manhattan District Attorney.
- I have to say, I was surprised
you were willing to come on my show.
- Why is that?
- Well, most liberal elected officials tend
to avoid me like the plague.
- The office of the district attorney
has no political affiliation.
- How do you feel about the Brooklyn DA's recent decision
to prosecute conservative senator Maureen Holt?
- I have no comment on that.
- Do you believe the Brooklyn DA
used his office to help liberals exact
political revenge?
- I can only speak for myself
and tell you my approach to the job.
[phone buzzes]
I do think it's fair to say that the institutions
Americans have relied on since this country was founded
are under attack from both sides.
And when these institutions fray...
[doorbell rings]
People lose faith.
And when people lose faith, the delicate belief system
that holds our democracy together crumbles.
And that we cannot allow.
I intend to protect the reputation and integrity
of the Manhattan DA's office with every fiber of my being...
- [screams]
- Focusing on the law and just ignoring
the divisive political rhetoric
that's so rampant in our society today.
My pledge to the people of New York is simple.
- [breathing heavily]
[slamming on door]
[yells]
- I will do everything in my power
to keep you safe
and punish those who commit willful acts of violence
to the fullest extent of the law.
[both grunting]
[dramatic music]
♪
- 10-4.
Found the vic's purse.
Empty except for her ID.
- Yeah, she tried to call 911 too, but...
- It looks like the cause of death
is probably strangulation.
She's got petechial hemorrhaging
in both of her eyes.
- And the killer beat her up pretty bad before that.
Make sure you bag her hands.
- Hey, excuse me. This is an active crime scene.
Detective Riley. This is Detective Shaw.
We're out of the 2-7. I'm pretty sure this is ours.
- It is.
I'm your new lieutenant.
Jessica Brady. Nice to meet you.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on.
What happened to Dixon?
- I don't know.
What have we got? - Wait, hold on a second.
You got to give us more than that.
I mean-- - No, because I don't know.
So what have we got?
- Vic's name is Macy Harper.
Drawers have been ransacked. Jewelry box is empty.
Purse is empty. No cash, no cards.
- Killer left the phone.
Probably knew it could be traced.
- Yeah, and she was either packing or unpacking.
- Look, Lieutenant,
all due respect, we got this.
- I know, but I'm already here.
So what else do we know?
- Vic's fiancé called it in.
He owns the place.
Came back from dinner late.
Came home, found her dead. - Hell of a house.
- Belongs to Dylan Phipps, as in the clothing line.
- Son of Alexander Phipps.
Took over the business a few years ago.
- Press is gonna love this.
- Forced entry, stolen jewelry--
looks like a home invasion gone sideways.
- Beating was pretty brutal, though.
Maybe too brutal
for a random home invasion.
OK, press is really gonna love this.
- And why is that?
- Macy was a prosecutor.
Brooklyn DA's office.
♪
She's one of us.
[dramatic music]
♪
- We understand that you're going through a lot right now,
but we need to know everything that you know.
- I--I went to dinner.
Macy's been in D.C.
for the past few days at a law conference.
And I called her around 9:00 to check in.
She had just gotten back.
She said she was gonna shower and go to bed.
And I got home around 11:30.
- We're gonna need access
to your security system as well.
- I can't. It's broken.
Someone smashed the cameras a few days ago,
and I've been trying to get 'em fixed.
- OK. OK.
So you're out at dinner.
You don't get back until 11:30.
- Yeah, I went to a friend's place afterwards,
and obviously, I should have come straight home.
How could I have known?
- We're gonna need your friend's name and contact info.
- Kenneth Lane.
- The guy who runs the right-wing news website?
- Yeah. - Excuse me.
Hi, excuse me. You need to let me through.
My name is Sarah Harper.
- That's Macy's half-sister. Would you excuse me, please?
- Hey, yo!
- Please. Dylan. [sirens wailing]
- OK. I talked to a neighbor.
He said he saw a man behind the gate
near the trash cans around 9:00 PM.
He yelled, and the guy took off.
- Did he give a description?
- Short hair, average height.
Said he was wearing a black Duke sweatshirt,
like the college.
He followed him for a little bit
and saw him enter a bodega three blocks that way.
- Black Duke sweatshirt.
Uh, yeah, I remember him.
I sort of laughed, you know?
He didn't seem like the college type, let alone Duke.
- Why is that? - Because he's illegal.
- What makes you say that?
- For starters, he looked Mexican or whatever,
and he paid in cash.
- So based on that, you decided that he was undocumented?
- I see, I'm a racist,
even though I'm the one getting fleeced.
These punks are robbing me blind every day, 24/7.
- You know, you're making a lot
of dangerous assumptions here, my man.
- They're not assumptions if they're true, my man.
This whole block is crawling with these dudes.
- Are they having a conference or something?
They all just decided to descend on this block?
- No, the city is using the hotel around the corner
as a shelter.
- Any word from Dixon?
- No, man. It's weird.
Do you mind?
Hello, everybody.
Don't worry, we're police. We're not ICE.
[nervous chatter]
[ominous music]
- [clicks tongue]
♪
Excuse me, sir.
Just have a few questions for you.
- Lo siento.
- Hablas inglés?
No, no, no, no. Come on, hey.
[dramatic music]
♪
No, no, no, no. - [grunts]
- Hey, hands! Hands! - Wait.
- You got him? - Yeah.
- Why are you running, huh?
- Please. - [speaking Spanish]
- I don't want to go home.
I don't want to go home. My family, they're here.
I have a daughter. She's three years old.
- Your English is pretty good for somebody no hablo inglés.
Come on.
- Let's go. - [grunts]
- I didn't break into a house,
and I definitely didn't kill anyone.
- OK, listen, we have a witness
that puts you outside of the victim's house
around the time of the murder. Come on.
- I was working over there today.
I saw this woman putting out bags of clothes near the trash.
This is all I took. She was throwing it away.
- All right, we'll talk about it more at the station.
Now be quiet.
- Why are you putting this on me?
All I took was a sweatshirt!
both: Hey! - This is all I took!
- Listen. - Why not talk to the guy
who was outside of her house?
He was yelling at her.
- What guy?
- It was a white dude with a beard.
- Tech was able to pull Harper's vitals
off of her smartwatch.
Put her exact time of death at 9:29 PM.
- Checked with the hotel where Diaz is living.
He signed in at 9:21.
- OK. He's not our guy.
What about white dude with a beard?
- We'll keep looking.
- OK, good. And put some heat on the ME.
We need that report soon as possible.
- Yeah, I spoke to the ME earlier this morning.
Said tomorrow or the next day.
- OK, and what about the fiancé, Phipps?
Did you validate his alibi?
- Not yet.
- There a reason?
- Because Kenneth Lane hasn't called back yet.
- Do you know that the DA, the Brooklyn DA, the mayor,
they're all calling for updates on the hour?
- OK, I appreciate that, but, I mean--
- But what?
- Well, we're not magicians.
- Can I talk to you for a second?
Um, I'm sensing a little tension, Vince.
- No, no tension.
It just feels like you don't trust us very much.
- I don't.
I don't know you.
I've never worked with you before.
I can't afford to take anything for granted right now
with everybody breathing down my neck.
Look, I know you were close to Dixon.
I know it's hard to start all over again
with someone new and all of that stuff.
But really, that's your problem, not mine.
I don't need you to like me.
I don't need you to agree with me.
I need you to listen to me.
- Copy that.
- Hey. - Hey.
- Hey, guys. Um...
I just heard about Macy. - Oh.
- Yeah, I--I knew her.
We worked together before she moved over to Brooklyn.
If there's anything that you need,
I'm available 24/7.
- Appreciate that, Sam.
Meet Jessica Brady, our new lieutenant.
- Hi.
- ADA Samantha Maroun.
- Oh, look forward to working with you.
Did you know Macy?
I mean, did you happen to notice anything unusual?
Any problems or threats or--
- Well, we weren't that close.
We did talk about a month ago.
Everything seemed great.
She was madly in love,
trying all these important cases.
- She was working on the Senator Holt case, right?
- Yeah. Actually, that's the only thing
she complained about-- all the hate she was getting.
- Oh, and the hate keeps on coming.
She's literally trending right now on social media.
Looks like a lot of people actually like
the fact that she's dead.
Got to love America.
- "Bitch got what she deserved.
Time to celebrate."
- This jackass has been posting up a storm.
Jeff Sanders. Lives in the city.
Look at that-- white dude with a beard.
"Harper sits in her liberal mansion on the Upper East Side,
"thinking she can do whatever she wants.
It's up to us to let her know that she's wrong."
- Well, it sounds like he knows where she lives.
- Mm-hmm. - Bring him in.
[distant sirens wailing]
- I've been, um, going over
your social media posts, Jeff,
and it seems like you really do not care for Macy Harper.
- I despise her, actually.
- Why is that?
- She's a puppet of the deep state
who weaponized her position to take down Senator Holt.
- Felt like a trumped-up charge to me too.
I mean, I don't know about the rest of that,
but I hear you.
Were you on the Upper East Side last night around 9:00?
- No, ma'am.
- No?
You weren't at Macy's brownstone
last night around 9:00 PM?
- No, I was not.
- Well, the thing is, Jeff, we have you on video
breaking into the house at exactly 8:57.
And the way she was beaten, strangled,
felt personal,
like whoever did it despised her.
- No.
No, I had nothing to do with that.
[tense music]
♪
OK. OK.
I admit I was there,
but I didn't break into her house
or kill her.
I was just protesting,
exercising my right to free speech.
- So you admit to harassing her at her home
the night she was murdered?
- I was protesting.
- If you were just protesting,
why did you break the security cameras?
- Excuse me?
- Step one, destroy the cameras.
Step two, kick in the door and kill her,
which makes it premeditated, which makes us very happy.
Juries love it.
Makes it easier for them to convict.
- I didn't destroy her cameras.
I was proud of what I was doing.
I wanted to be seen.
♪
Not our guy.
- Really?
The conspiracy theorist with a vendetta against our vic
who lied about being at the crime scene
the night of the murder.
- At first, but then he told the truth.
The guy has a tell-- three tells, actually.
One, he scratches his neck.
Two, he hides his hand under the table.
And three, his pupils dilate.
And when Sanders said he didn't kill Macy or break the cameras,
he didn't do any of those things.
- She's right.
Sanders' metro card puts him on the train at 9:12 PM,
which is 20 minutes before the murder.
And the cameras on the platform confirm he was there.
- You must be pretty dangerous at the poker table.
- Don't gamble. Long story.
- Well, now I'm intrigued.
- Maybe some other day.
[phone buzzes]
- Riley.
Yes, that'd be great.
We'll be right there. Thank you.
We got to go.
That was Kenneth Lane, the guy that Phipps
had dinner with last night.
He's ready to talk.
- I'm sorry it took me a while to get back to you.
I've been going through a divorce--
lawyers, accountants.
And to be honest, I'm still trying to process
what happened to Macy.
It is really difficult to comprehend.
I--I can't imagine what Dylan must be going through.
- When was the last time you two saw each other?
- Uh, last night. We went to Café Rosa.
- And what time did you finish?
- Around 9:15, maybe a little later.
- And then what?
- We walked back to my place.
- What time did you guys arrive at your apartment?
- About 9:45.
- And what time did Phipps leave?
- 11:15.
You know, my building's got a lot of surveillance cameras.
I could have someone send over the footage if that's helpful.
- That'd be great, thank you. - It's not a problem.
I'm a big fan of what you guys do.
My company supports strong law enforcement.
- I bet.
Speak soon.
- Hang on.
This might be nothing, but a few weeks ago,
I got a tip that the Brooklyn DA was
investigating some rapper--
conspiracy, sex trafficking, serious stuff--
and I called Macy.
She confirmed the rumor,
but she wouldn't give me a name.
She said she was afraid it might make things worse.
- What did she mean, make things worse?
- She said someone from the guy's camp
was threatening her.
- Macy never said she received any threats.
Why are you asking about all this?
- Just a lead we're chasing.
- What about the other cases she was working on?
Anything seem out of the ordinary
the last few weeks?
- No, nothing comes to mind.
Her behavior was definitely off.
- How so?
- She'd become withdrawn.
She claimed everything was great,
but a few days ago, she asked for a week off.
Said she needed time to sort things out.
- That maybe for the law conference she went to in D.C.?
- What law conference?
[ominous music]
- So it looks like Macy was lying
about her whereabouts in the days
leading up to the murder.
She told her fiancé that she was going to a law conference
in D.C., but her boss says that she wasn't there,
that she had asked for a week off
for personal reasons.
- What about her friends or family?
What did they say?
- We talked to her sister, her assistant,
three or four of her coworkers.
Nobody knows where Macy was or what she was doing.
- Let's get her cell site data,
try to track her movements for that period of time.
- It's Macy Harper, right?
- Yeah, it's Macy Harper. - OK.
Well, there's no record of a Macy Harper
ever staying with us.
- OK, help me out here.
Because cell phone data puts her here
in the area for three nights starting five days ago,
and this is the only hotel in the vicinity.
- She might have checked in under a different name,
or she could have been staying with someone.
- No, sorry.
I worked the front desk all week too,
and I'm good with faces.
- OK, thank you.
Oh, from Dixon.
"Patrick got a great job at a school in Miami.
"Mama's tagging along.
"Didn't want to make a big to-do about it,
"tears and all that.
Come visit."
- I'll take her up on that.
- Talk about the old Irish goodbye, though, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- I'll take that up with her later,
but I'm glad she's all right.
- So Macy's Uber picked her up somewhere around here.
- Yeah.
- Maybe one of those two cameras caught it.
- Then we can find out where the hell she was coming from
and if she was with someone.
- This is private property.
Please leave or I'll contact the authorities.
- We are the authorities, ma'am.
[door buzzes]
- Thank you for opening the door, ma'am.
We're investigating a homicide.
We'd like access to your security cameras,
if that's possible.
We're hoping they caught a glimpse of this woman here.
- That's Macy.
Is-- - She was killed two days ago.
[somber music]
- Um,
she was staying here.
- In that case, would it be OK if we came inside
and asked you a few questions?
- I'm sorry, we don't allow men inside the building.
- What sort of place is this?
- A shelter for battered women? What are you talking about?
- That's where she was staying right before she was murdered.
- No, she was at a legal conference.
- She lied to you, Dylan.
♪
- I'm sorry, are you two suggesting that I abused--
- That's exactly what we're doing.
- She told a counselor that you have severe anger issues
and that you began to get physical.
Extremely physical.
- She was lying. That's ridiculous.
- Well, unfortunately for you, we just got the ME report back,
and your DNA is under her fingernails.
- Get the hell out of my house right now.
- Oh, yeah?
What are you gonna do?
Gonna call the cops?
Dylan Phipps, you're under arrest.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa. - Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Hey, hey, hey. - Hey!
What do you guys think you're doing right now, huh?
- Phipps looks good for this.
But do we have enough to charge?
- The evidence is circumstantial,
but it's still pretty compelling.
- OK, let's hear it.
- Well, Macy told a counselor at the shelter
that Phipps had become violent and that she intended
to break off the engagement.
- And we also know Phipps called Macy at 9:00 PM.
They talked for 67 seconds.
Presumably, that's when she broke
the news that she was leaving.
20 minutes later, she was dead.
- And his DNA was found under her nails,
even though they hadn't been together for several days.
- So what's our theory?
Phipps left the restaurant with Lane.
At some point after that, he broke off,
went back to his brownstone, killed his fiancée,
then tossed the place and kicked in the front door
to make it look like a burglary.
- Probably smashed the surveillance cameras too.
- Can we put Phipps near the scene?
- No.
All we have is video of him walking out of the restaurant
with Lane at 9:18 and video of him and Lane
walking into Lane's apartment at 9:46 PM.
But that's a 28-minute gap.
More than enough time for Phipps
to have gone to the house and killed Macy.
- But Phipps and Lane claim they were together.
They were walking back to his apartment at that time, right?
- Correct.
And we don't have video to disprove that either.
- Means he has a decent alibi.
- Yeah, if you believe Kenneth Lane.
He's hardly a beacon of integrity.
- But I'm guessing he'll present as a credible witness.
Macy's statements to her counselor are good,
but the content is probably inadmissible.
The 67-second phone call is good in theory,
but there's no way to prove
she actually broke up with Phipps.
So all we really have is the DNA under her nails
and the fact that she was staying at a shelter
for battered women.
We need more.
At a minimum, we need to prove that Phipps' alibi is false,
that Lane is lying to protect his friend.
And since we don't want to release Phipps from custody,
we have 24 hours to charge him.
So you better get going.
[tense music]
♪
- This whole thing is preposterous.
Dylan is one of the kindest men alive.
There is no chance he killed Macy.
- We just want to review the statement
you gave to the police.
Uh, you had dinner with Phipps at Café Rosa till around 9:15,
then walked back to your apartment.
And you were with him that whole time?
- Correct.
- Phipps called Macy while you were
at the restaurant, at 9:02 PM.
- I believe so. - All right.
So that means you were with him when he made the call.
Do you recall what they talked about?
- Look, I already told the police what happened.
- No, you told them what you wanted them to believe.
- Well, your girl's got a bad attitude.
- Excuse me?
- Sorry, that came out wrong.
- No, I'm pretty sure that came out
exactly the way you meant it.
- [sighs] I wish I could help.
Macy was an amazing girl, but she and Dylan were happy.
They were in love. - No, he was abusing her.
- What the hell are you talking about?
- She was staying at a shelter for abused women.
People don't go there because they're bored
or to get a spa treatment.
- I find that impossible to believe.
In any event, I need to get back to work.
So if you don't mind-- - One last question.
♪
Why are you covering for this bastard?
♪
- [scoffs]
- No, answer the question.
Why are you covering for him? - Sam, enough.
Enough. Enough.
I-I know that you and Macy worked together, but--
- No, it's about more than just that.
♪
- 12 more hours. - Ah.
Do not give up yet.
Three months ago, March 21st, Phipps wired $100,000
to an LLC owned by Lane.
There are several more payments prior to that as well,
same amount.
- Mm-hmm.
What does this have to do--
- Proves Lane was on his payroll.
- Yeah.
This money could be for any number of things.
- Phipps sells clothes.
Lane sells right-wing porn wrapped up as news.
There is a reason he's been sending cash
to an LLC controlled by Lane, and it's not because
they're friends or business associates.
Oh, here we go.
So a few days before the latest wire transfer,
Phipps sent Lane a text that goes, "Need your help.
Unfortunate incident occurred last night, Four Seasons."
Lane responds, "On it."
The next day,
"Caught and killed."
- Huh, sounds like Phipps really wanted
to keep this unfortunate incident out of the press.
- Exactly.
♪
- Let's get a search warrant for Lane's electronic devices.
- On it.
- You know what's just as bad as a woman beater?
- What's that?
- The liar trying to protect his ass.
- You know, the first homicide I ever caught
was a guy named Finley.
Lived in this big house up on Madison.
We get there on the crime scene,
he's got one in the chest, three in the groin.
- Oof.
- And my Sergeant, this guy Griggs, he says,
"Well, our work here is done."
I'm like, what are you talking about, man?
We just got here.
He says, "It's the wife, dummy."
- And?
- And it was the wife. - Yeah.
- It turns out the prick was beating the hell out of her.
Good news is, she got a free pass.
- Too bad Macy didn't do the same, huh?
- Where's your boss?
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, what's happening here?
- We're here to collect your laptops,
cell phones, and servers.
- You can't just walk into my newsroom
and take my property.
- Sure we can.
- Stay out of the way.
- Hey! Hey! - [gasping]
- Detectives found this on Lane's hardware.
- Where do you think you're going, huh?
Where do you think you're going?
Disrespectful bitch.
- Oh, my God. - [groaning]
- Why do you make me do this to you, huh?
Why do you make me do this to you?
- Jesus.
- I can't believe that bastard's out on bail.
- I'm sorry, I just-- I need to--
- Is she OK?
- Yeah, I think so.
It's a hard case.
Hard video to watch.
- I'll say.
So Lane bought this video from someone
at the hotel, then buried it.
- Got paid 100 grand for his troubles.
- Are there more videos? - Seven.
Similar acts of violence against three different women,
got $100k each time.
- Phipps got caught abusing women on video seven times?
- And Lane was there to help out at every turn.
- Under the guise of being a journalist, of course.
- It's like that guy Pecker
at the "National Enquirer," "Catch and kill."
- Yeah, I thought the press was supposed to expose the truth,
not hide it.
This man is a monster.
- Yeah.
Good news is, these videos help our case.
They prove that Lane has a history
of covering up Phipps' violence.
It will eviscerate his credibility
and Phipps' alibi.
- Charge him with murder two.
Just make sure these videos are admissible.
♪
- No, no, no, no, no. If the jury sees these videos,
they'll convict my client for being abusive,
whether or not he committed the murder.
There's no question this is more
prejudicial than probative.
- [scoffs] Nothing in the world could be
more probative than those videos.
The defendant is a violent misogynist.
He abused women. He abused Macy Harper.
And on the evening of June 28th,
that abuse turned to murder.
- Come on, Your Honor. - Excuse me.
He didn't shoot or stab her.
He beat and choked her,
just like he did in those videos.
Your Honor, these clips show a pattern of conduct,
a pattern of violence,
and are admissible under Molineux.
The jury needs to understand
that underneath Mr. Phipps' coiffed persona,
he is a monster... - A monster? Your Honor--
- Capable of extraordinary cruelty and violence.
- He's not being charged with domestic violence.
He's being charged with murder.
Sadly, there are lots of men out there who abuse women.
And guess what.
99.9% of them aren't killers.
- True, but the videos show a motive
and intent for the murder.
They're coming in.
[soft dramatic music]
♪
- It's over.
♪
- [sighs]
Well, that's it.
Got what he deserved, I suppose.
- No.
Not even close.
♪
- Ms. Maroun?
- Sarah, hi. - Hi.
- Come in.
Thank you for coming. - Of course.
- Sarah, I just wanted to inform you that
Dylan Phipps killed himself yesterday.
- I know. I just heard it on my way over.
It's all over the news.
May I?
- Oh, please.
- So what happens now?
- Nothing.
It's over.
- So...
no one gets to know
what that bastard did to my sister?
I should have seen it.
- It's not that easy, trust me.
No matter how hard you look.
- [sniffles]
[crying]
[somber music]
♪
- I know how painful this must be.
♪
- I appreciate that,
but you don't.
- I-- - You can't.
That is a good thing.
Because the rage
that I have inside of me...
♪
[sobbing]
♪
- You want to go after Kenneth Lane?
- Mm-hmm. - For what?
- For burying those videos,
for being complicit in Phipps' abuse.
If it weren't for him, people would have known
Phipps was a monster.
He would have been in jail, or Macy would have known
to stay the hell away from him.
- We all agree with you on that, Sam,
but catching and killing news isn't a crime.
- But homicide is. - Homicide?
- We know Lane was with Phipps before and after
he killed Macy, but we always assumed
they parted ways after the restaurant
and reconnected after the fact.
But what if Lane was more involved?
Look, there has to be a reason we couldn't put Phipps
at the scene or find more videos of them
walking home that night.
- Meaning what?
- What if Lane and Phipps drove to the crime scene together?
- Pull as much surveillance video
as you can find near the restaurant.
See if you can confirm your theory.
- Excuse me, Mr. Boyd?
May we have a moment?
Manhattan DA's office.
We'd like to ask you a few questions.
- About what? - Kenneth Lane.
- This is Mr. Lane and another man
stepping into your SUV at 9:20 PM on June 28th,
just two blocks north of Café Rosa.
- So? - Where'd you take 'em?
- To a house--
a really nice house on 68th Street.
- Is this the man Lane was with?
- Yeah.
But what's this all about?
- Well, a woman was murdered that night.
- I didn't know.
I don't follow the news.
- If you did, you'd learn that the woman who lived
in this really nice home was beaten to a pulp
and then strangled to death.
- What happened after you arrived at the house?
- Lane and the other guy walked up to the house.
Lane rang the doorbell.
The other guy sort of hid.
- That--that makes sense.
The brownstone had a deadbolt.
They knew Macy would never open the door for Phipps.
- Did you hear them talking?
Did they say anything on the drive over?
[tense music]
- Yeah.
The other guy,
he was all riled up, yelling and cussing.
Said something like, uh,
"I swear I'm gonna kill that bitch."
But I--I thought it was just venting.
♪
- Three days prior to Macy's death,
she'd been staying at a shelter for battered women.
She needed refuge.
She needed therapy.
She needed to reclaim the dignity her fiancé,
Dylan Phipps, had stolen from her.
And she did.
When she left the shelter on the evening of June 28th,
she was planning to break off her engagement and move out.
But the defendant, Kenneth Lane, and Mr. Phipps
interrupted that plan.
They drove to the house
that Macy shared with Mr. Phipps
and killed her.
The defendant knew Mr. Phipps planned to kill her too.
On the drive from Café Rosa
to the house where Macy was killed,
the driver overheard Mr. Phipps say,
"I swear I am going to kill that bitch."
And the defendant knew
this wasn't just a hollow threat.
He was well aware of Mr. Phipps' violence.
He'd seen it before,
several times, actually.
You see, whenever Mr. Phipps'
abhorrent behavior was caught on camera,
the defendant would use his journalistic charm
and guile to purchase and bury the video.
Knowing all this, the defendant rang the buzzer
and persuaded Macy to open the front door
while Mr. Phipps hid in the shadows.
So why did the defendant ring the buzzer?
Why did Mr. Phipps hide?
Because they knew Macy was terrified of Phipps.
[soft dramatic music]
The defendant may not have choked
or punched Macy that evening, but he was there.
And he knew the man who killed her
intended to do just that,
which means the defendant is guilty
of murder.
♪
- We'll resume tomorrow at 9:00 AM.
- That went well.
- Let's talk to Boyd, make sure he's ready to go tomorrow.
He just needs to repeat what he saw and heard.
No need for any topspin.
"I swear I'm gonna kill that bitch"
is compelling enough.
- Especially when said bitch gets killed ten minutes later.
Sorry, that was--
- I'm sorry. We're a bit early.
- Jimmy, don't say a word to them.
I'm Frank Cooney, Jimmy's lawyer.
- Oh, we weren't expecting to be--
- He's not testifying. - What are you talking about?
- I'm sorry, but I-- - He can't do it.
He's not sure what he heard that night.
- He already told us what he heard.
- Well, he misspoke.
He was stoned. He'd taken an edible.
- Even if that is true, you can still testify
that you saw Phipps and Lane walk up to the house,
that you saw Lane ring the doorbell.
- Please, direct your questions to me, not my client.
- How much did you get paid, Jimmy?
Huh? 100 grand?
More?
- We're done here.
♪
- OK.
I'll draft a subpoena.
- He'll just say he didn't see or hear anything.
- Yeah.
- Our case rests on his testimony.
♪
Our only move is to reopen the investigation.
- No.
I hate to say this,
but we need to dismiss the case.
- Dismiss?
- We just don't have enough evidence, Sam.
And this one was always a long shot.
- We can talk to the driver again.
I-I can explain how important-- - No, no, no, no, no.
We can't.
He has a lawyer.
- Then we focus on the videos.
We let the jury know he was complicit--
- But that doesn't put him at the crime scene
or prove that he's an accomplice in Macy's murder.
- Who the hell cares?
- Excuse me?
- He was there.
He helped Phipps get inside the house.
He's been covering up
this bastard's violence for years.
He deserves to go down.
- I agree with everything you just said.
And trust me, I want this man to suffer.
I really do.
But that does not mean that we get to just try him
for murder, that we get to exploit our power
to get the result we want.
That's not the way this works.
This office needs to be above reproach,
above emotion, above the political fray.
And if the cost of that is that we have to let a punk like Lane
go free, then so be it.
- [scoffs]
Wow.
- What the hell was that?
- Um, uh-- [sighs]
I just think she's--
she's having a hard time with this one.
- I understand.
But she needs to learn to control her emotions.
- Not that simple.
Her sister was beaten to death 12 years ago,
and police never arrested the killer either, so...
[tense music]
♪
Sam, call me back when you get this.
♪
[car horns honking]
Come on, Sam, pick up.
♪
[car horns honking]
♪
Sir, I'm gonna get out here. - You got it.
[car horns honking]
- Sam.
- You don't need to be part of this, please.
- You can't talk to him. - No, OK?
He needs to tell the truth.
We can't-- no, I won't let him pretend
that he didn't hear what he clearly heard.
- Sam, look at me.
If you talk to Boyd, if you-- if you even knock on his door,
you will be disbarred.
- I don't care.
I really don't care.
I'm just so sick of these rich bastards
getting away with murder.
It is not OK. - I get it. I get it.
And I know how painful this must be.
I know how much you loved her.
- Don't talk about my sister.
- Please don't throw away your career.
This is not what she would have wanted.
[somber music]
♪
- [sobbing]
- It's OK.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
[wolf howls]